Five Minute Friday: Wonder

After years of living all over the world my husband and I have a theory:

“people are people are people.”

{Especially kids, heh.}

And when you all show up here every Friday for what’s nearly two years straight now, with your gut-punchingly awesome words, your wildly unbridled encouragement of one another, and your passion for spending five minutes writing your heart out I’m all like, “yea, people. Sigh. People!”

Because I’m convinced that there’s this fingerprint swirl of Heavenly wonder pressed deep into the heart of each of us. And when the best parts of who we are come out, the parts created so gorgeously in the image of the Father God, then it’s easy to believe. To believe in faith and redemption and promises of a friendship that holds on. Through the storm. Through the whirlwind of joy. Through the baby years and the teenage years and the midlife, finally enjoying the bathroom to yourself years.

This mircocosm of all the best things about community –

Thank YOU.

For nearly two years of wonder. Thank you.

Five Minute Friday is going to take the month of December off. To catch it’s breath. To reflect. To listen more than write. To rest. We’ll start fresh in January. So for now, let’s write our fingers off in just five minutes!

How to Join:

Want to know how Five Minute Friday got started and how to participate? All the details are here.

Now, set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

Oh and Ahem, if you would take pity and turn off comment verification, it would make leaving some love on your post that much easier for folks!

OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on:::

Wonder…

GO

I have a friend who’s due any day now to give birth to her first baby. She’s tired and feet swollen and back aching and nervous. We talk for a while after a dinner of burritos surrounded by so many students who are oblivious to the new beginning sitting there between them. We talk quietly under cover of all the chaos around us about life. About the scary, raw, elemental nature of new beginnings.

I want to take off my shoes.

I want to tell her this is the holy stuff. This is the sacred territory. This is God country.

When He makes something from nothing. When he molds and bends and shapes a woman into a mother in a mere nine months. How He delivers us from ourselves through our children. Sacrifice. Who can possibly understand it who hasn’t surrendered her body, her time, her sleep, her schedule, her wants, her needs to someone else.

Parenthood -the ultimate parable.

And to give birth in December? That is it’s own kind of holy wonder. It was a snowy drive for me from our house out in the Michigan farm country to the small town hospital on December 27th.

To give birth in December is to hear echoes of angel choirs and feel the footprints you follow of another mother so long, and deep and far and wide ago.

But so close.

We ache through labor and at the end of that long and ragged tunnel there is always deliverance. It might be hard and terrible in the coming. But it comes.

The Christ comes.

Soon and very soon.

STOP

OK, show us what you got! {Subscribers, you can just click here to come over and play along}

OK, that was so beautifully put – you made me choke up. I have so often wondered how God does this- in our motherhood- Yes, he does deliver us from ourselves. Amen, Amen, Amen. I usually do not read before I write for the 5 minutes so I can focus better and not have anything in my head prior to my own thoughts…but I am so blessed by your words today. Thank you for these wonderful 5 minutes every Friday. They are some of my most blissful minutes. Now that really is a wonder! Have a wonderful December, Lisa Jo. In His Grace, Dawn

It’s no secret how grateful I am for the experience I have had the last two years playing along with this five minute writng thing. I am so thankful for your generosity and the way you have fostered a beautiful community here in this space. Praying you enjoy a break, and have a blessed and beautiful Christmas season. You have so many great gifts. XXOO Chocolates and whipped cream to you, my friend. You’re the best!

Meegs
on November 30, 2012 at 7:20 am

Ah I LOVE that first picture! Brings back all those wonderful memories! We miss you. Watching Zoe grow up through your blog reminds me how quickly time passes, but I guess that means we will see you all soon! Have a wonderful December and Christmas. We will skype. Lots of love xx

Your post is so beautiful and as a December baby myself I love how you make that so special, especially when everyone else groans that they have to try and remember your birthday and may I say people do forget-but I am only the exact week before Christmas so I forgive them. The wonder of new life is so wondrous and as I look at the scan my sister sent of her new baby my heart is filled with that wonder. Thank you. Blessings.

I WONDER what on earth I will do :-)
Thanks Mrs Lisa-Jo Baker for this awesome experience of discovery for me.
God bless you and your family with a most WONDER-filled December and Christmas!
Peace, Joy and Love.

Thank you for offering 5 Minute Friday. I have only been joining for a few weeks and I love it.
I will miss you in December but I am wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your time with your family.
Blessings,
Sherry

Both of my girls are December babies – the 9th and the 28th. I too feel that same kind of wonder, that kindred heart to the mother of our Lord, what she must have been thinking and feeling in those days leading up to the birth of the King of Kings. What it must have been like to nurse him at her bosom. Thank you for reminding me of the beauty and the grace and the divine – even when life feels like anything but those.

Lindsey
on November 30, 2012 at 10:28 am

Thank you, Lisa-Jo… For your encouragement and your beautiful post. I think it may have to go in the baby book! :-)

Lisa-Jo
on November 30, 2012 at 2:29 pm

I’m stalking you on Facebook – can not wait to hear when he finally arrives! :)

I’ve had several friends deliver their babies in December and they have always said how blessed they feel to experience childbirth during the Advent season. Thank you for sharing your perspective; it was WONDERful! :)

I just want you to know that I’m having withdrawals from FMF. I had to stop when I was getting ready for Allume then the Lord challenged me to do a series on my blog about sTePpaRenTinG (I like that look…Humm).

FMF has blessed me so much, this is was my first experience in community as a new blogger last year. Thank you for your dedication to FMF. Love Ya, Susta!

It’s in the face of my two-year old nephew as he looks up, up, up at the fan drawing steam into a tornado vortex at a museum exhibit. Wonder is in his voice when he shouts”Veggie Tales” and snuggles in to watch holding his “baby” (blanket).

I find wonder when on a run, I spot brilliant red berries against the cloudy November sky or see the imprint remaining on the sidewalk from wet leaves.

I hear wonder when I listen to the YouTube recording of the flash mob Christmas singers at a Southern California mall.

Wonder… God with us, Immanuel. Every day.

Anita Junttila
on November 30, 2012 at 12:04 pm

I have tears in my eyes I am so moved by your beautiful post this morning. You are a gifted writer ! xo

Wow, that you could write this wonder of the ache and the brokenness and the coming and the deliverance ~ the beauty of redemption in a mere five minutes.
‘The ultimate parable’ – oh so true! How it continues to change and grow me.
Thank you for this community and opportunity to share our hearts together.
May God be glorified as we wait for the coming!

Joe Siccardi
on December 29, 2012 at 9:30 am

I’ve been following your blog on my blog, Father Says at http://wisdomfromafather.wordpress.com/ and the Five Minute Friday challenge sounds interesting. I also noticed it was an all-girls club, but was wondering if you and the other ladies would consider a male perspective. I don’t want to intrude.
Hope you had a blessed Christmas and here’s to a Happy New Year.
Joe

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